This invention broadly relates to cable or conduit handling devices and is specifically directed to the provision of a synchronized drive and cable handling system for a rotational machine element, upon which element are carried load devices to which a medium is required to be supplied through the cables, all to the end that measured lengths of cable are played-out and taken-in in synchronism with the rotation of the rotational element.
Many machine systems utilize rotational elements or rotors which carry devices to which a medium is required to be supplied through cables. For example, and with particular reference to computerized tomographic X-ray apparatus, a rotatable circular gantry is often times provided, which rotatable gantry carries an X-ray tube as well as a plurality of X-ray detectors. With such an arrangement, it is necessary to feed power to the tube, to send and receive signal information from the detectors, and perhaps additionally to supply a cooling flow of oil for the X-ray tube.
The necessity to supply such mediums to such devices which are carried by the rotational machine element such as the rotatable gantry poses significant problems. Specifically, and if such mediums are to be externally supplied by means of a cable or conduit attached at one end to the devices per se, some technique is necessary so that the cables can be played-out and taken-in with respect to the rotational element during the rotation thereof so that the cables do not become tangled, placed under undue stress and tension, and the like.
A further requirement of such a cable handling system in the contemplated environments of utility is that such system must of necessity operate in substantial synchronism with the rotation of the rotatable element. To achieve such synchronous operation, and to do so at a relatively low manufacturing cost by which the necessity of complex electronic synchronizing components is eliminated as is the resultant unreliability thereof, is a significant task.